Soundtrack to my life: Kody Nielson - Frank Zappa, Miles Davis and Herbie Hancock

Kody Nielson. Image / Ralph Brown

PEACHES EN REGALIA
Frank Zappa

I was about 12. Me and my brother were cleaning out the basement at our old house and we found some dusty old records of Dad's. We didn't have an amp for the record player but there was a turntable, so we hooked it up and were just going through the records we liked the covers of. We were just crate-digging out of our dad's old record collection. We'd always heard his music and been to his live gigs, he played in a lot of Cuban bands and jazz bands and that kind of thing. We were always around his music but this is the first time we went digging into the collection on our own.

This track was a big influence on me at the time because I'd never really heard anything that intensely arranged musically. It's like an instrumental piece. It's a nice orchestrally arranged piece, mixed with 60s rock-type elements.

MAIYSHA (SO LONG)
Miles Davis

This was a few years later. We'd just moved away to a different area and I was more of a teenager at this point but this album, Get Up with It, was one of the first CDs I bought with my money. CDs had really just come out.

It's a weird album, it's quite heavy and dark but this song is a nice piece of music and I really like the production and the organ playing.

I really love this era. This is one of my favourite eras of Miles Davis. Such a cool era. I found the CD in, I think it was Marbecks, upstairs. I was really getting into that 70s era. The cover of the CD is just his face and he's wearing these big-framed glasses and it looks real 70s, a real grainy picture. I loved this album and all the albums around that era too.

SLY
Herbie Hancock

This is from Herbie Hancock's album Head Hunters, which is another famous jazz-fusion funk album. It was just one of my favourite albums.

I'm still really into all this music. I've been working with my dad recently and plan to do more work with him in this sort of vein, maybe more lyrics. Lyrically, sometimes songs can take you in another direction to what you were thinking but musically they can take you places emotionally without having to use words. Sometimes, words tie it down too specifically, so that limits the feeling in a way, limits what the music can do emotionally.

FOR LOVE (I COME YOUR FRIEND)
George Duke

For the two last songs, I've chosen vocal tunes, even though they're from the same era. They're not specifically what I'd choose for emotional vocals or angsty heartbreak songs. All of these songs are more in the upbeat style. I'm really into sad music but if I get too into it, I get way too sad.

George Duke has got a really cool, falsetto tone. His music is quite laid-back, there's a weird urgency around it. He's one of my favourite artists.

This was one of my dad's old cassettes. I used to listen to it every day on the way after school to the beach, just in the car. We would take the stereo or boombox or whatever, like a portable CD player. Car stereos weren't much - at least our car stereo wasn't.

It's quite nostalgic now. It reminds me of that feeling of a sunny day, kind of a nostalgic vibe for me. I still like it.

INCA ROADS
Frank Zappa

This is a cool recording, especially when you see the live video. There's a virtuoso vibraphone player in the band called Ruth Underwood and she's doing this really crazy, amazing, technical avant-garde stuff.

To be honest, I find some of Frank Zappa's music kind of annoying but it's so amazing that he's been a big influence regardless, so I tend to stick to the positive things and the things I like about him.

As told to Greg Bruce

Kody Nielson performs with his band Silicon at Live at the Museum on Monday, February 22. Tickets are available at aucklandmuseum.com